What Is Nonverbal Communication?

Nonverbal Communication

Lecture

What Is Nonverbal Communication?

Nonverbal communication is the process of using wordless messages to generate meaning. Nonverbal communication includes nonword vocalizations such as inflection and nonword sounds such as “ah” and “hmm.” Communication is complex. We cannot quantify the relative contribution of nonverbal communication to verbal communication (Lapakko, 1997), but nonverbal communication often provides much more meaning than people realize. Indeed, when we are not certain about another person’s feelings or our feeling about him or her, we may rely far more on nonverbal cues and less on the words that are used (Grahe & Bernieri, 1999; Vedantam, 2006).

You know the importance of nonverbal communication in your own life. Imagine how difficult communication would be if you could not see the people with whom you are communicating, hear their voices, or sense their presence. Actually, this is what occurs when you send e-mail or instant messages or chat with others online. As electronic forms of communication have become more prevalent, people have found creative ways to communicate feeling and emotions. Emoticons are sequences of characters composed in two-dimensional written formats for the purpose of expressing emotions. The most common example of the emoticon is the “smiley” or “smiley face.” Emoticons are a form of nonverbal communication, and they illustrate the importance of this means of communication, no matter the context.

 

How are Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Related?

Both verbal and nonverbal communication are essential for effective interactions with others. How are the two related? Nonverbal communication works in conjunction with the words that we utter in six ways: to repeat, to emphasize, to complement, to contradict, to substitute, and to regulate. Let us consider each of these briefly.

Repeating occurs when the same message is sent verbally and nonverbally. It consists of using gestures to strengthen a verbal message, such as pointing to the object of discussion.

Emphasizing is the use of nonverbal cues to strengthen your message. Hugging a friend and telling him that you really care about him is a stronger statement than using either words or bodily movement alone.

Complementing: Nonverbal cues can be used to elaborate on verbal messages to reinforce the information sent when trying to achieve communicative goals; messages have been shown to be remembered better when nonverbal signals affirm the verbal exchange.

Contradicting occurs when your verbal and nonverbal messages conflict. Often this occurs accidentally. If you have ever been angry at a teacher or parent, you may have stated verbally that you were fine—but your bodily movements, facial expression, and use of space may have “leaked” your actual feelings. Contradiction occurs intentionally in humor and sarcasm. Your words provide one message, but your nonverbal delivery tells how you really feel.

Substituting occurs when nonverbal codes are used instead of verbal codes. You roll your eyes, you stick out your tongue, you gesture thumbs down, or you shrug. In most cases your intended message is fairly clear.

Regulating occurs when nonverbal codes are used to monitor and control interactions with others. For example, you look away when someone else is trying to talk and you are not finished with your thought. You walk away from someone who has hurt your feelings or made you angry. You shake your head and encourage another person to continue talking. While verbal and nonverbal codes often work in concert, they also exhibit differences that we will consider next.

You shake your head and encourage another person to continue talking. While verbal and nonverbal codes often work in concert, they also exhibit differences that we will consider next.

Why are Nonverbal Codes Difficult to Interpret?

Nonverbal communication is responsible for much of the misunderstanding that occurs during communication. Just as people have difficulty interpreting verbal symbols, so do they struggle to interpret nonverbal codes. The ambiguity of nonverbal communication occurs for two reasons: People use the same code to communicate a variety of meanings, and they use a variety of codes to communicate the same meaning.

One Code Communicates a Variety of Meanings

The ambiguity of nonverbal codes occurs in part because one code may communicate several different meanings. For example, the nonverbal code of raising your right hand may mean that you are taking an oath, you are demonstrating for a cause, you are indicating to an instructor that you would like to answer a question, a physician is examining your right side, or you want a taxi to stop for you. Also consider how you may stand close to someone because of a feeling of affection, because the room is crowded, or because you have difficulty hearing.

Although people in laboratory experiments have demonstrated some success in decoding nonverbal behavior accurately (Horgan & Smith, 2006), in actual situations receivers of nonverbal cues can only guess about the meaning of the cue (Motley & Camden, 1988). Several lay authors have been successful in selling books suggesting that observers can learn to easily and accurately distinguish meaning from specific nonverbal cues. Unfortunately, these authors have not been able to demonstrate any significant improvement among their readers. Single cues can be interpreted in multiple ways.

A Variety of Codes Communicate the Same Meaning

Nonverbal communication is not a science: Any number of codes may be used to communicate the same meaning. One example is the many nonverbal ways by which adults communicate love or affection. You may sit or stand more closely to someone you love. You might speak more softly, use a certain vocal intonation, or alter how quickly you speak when you communicate with someone with whom you are affectionate. Or perhaps you choose to dress differently when you are going to be in the company of someone you love.

Cultural differences are especially relevant when we consider that multiple cues may be used to express a similar message. How do you show respect to a speaker in a public-speaking situation? In some cultures respect is shown by listeners when they avert their eyes; in other cultures listeners show respect and attention by looking directly at the speaker. You may believe that showing your emotions is an important first step in resolving conflict, whereas a classmate may feel that emotional responses interfere with conflict resolution.

What Are Nonverbal Codes?

Nonverbal codes are codes of communication consisting of symbols that are not words, including nonword vocalizations. Bodily movement, facial expression, bodily appearance, the use of space, the use of time, touch, vocal cues, and clothing and other artifacts are all nonverbal codes. Let us consider these systematic arrangements of symbols that have been given arbitrary meaning and are used in communication.

Physical Attraction

Beauty, it has been noted, is in the eye of the beholder. However, some research has suggested that particular characteristics—bright eyes, symmetrical features, and thin or medium build—are generally associated with physical attraction (Cash, 1980; Kowner, 1996). Moreover, such characteristics may not be limited to our culture but may be universal (Brody, 1994).

Physical attractiveness affects many aspects of our lives. The influence of physical appearance begins when we are young. By age 4, children are treated differently based on their physical appearance by their day-care teachers (Cash, 1980; Langlois & Downs, 1979). When children misbehave, their behavior is viewed as an isolated, momentary aberration if they are physically attractive, but as evidence of a chronic tendency to be bad if they are unattractive. These patterns continue throughout childhood and adolescence (Knapp & Hall, 1992).

Physical attractiveness generally leads to more social success in adulthood. Women who are attractive report a larger number of dates in college. Attractiveness may be affected by skin tone and hair color. Swami, Furnham, and Joshi (2008) found that men clearly prefer brunettes over blondes, and slightly prefer women who have light skin tones. Both women and men who are attractive are seen as more sociable and sensitive (Knapp & Hall, 1992).

Do people change their view of mate preferences over time? Eastwick and Finkel (2008) found that men ideally desire a physically attractive mate while women ideally desire a mate who has strong earning prospects. In real-life potential partners, women and men did not evidence these preferences or differences. Stereotypes may exist in abstract thinking about potential mates, but they do not appear to be realized in actual behavior.

The “matching hypothesis” suggests that women and men seek others who are of similar attractiveness. Lee, Loewenstein, Ariely, Hong, and Young (2008) recently demonstrated this consistent finding, although they did find that men were more oblivious to their own physical attractiveness in selecting a woman to date while women were keenly aware of their “physical attraction quotient.” They also asked whether less attractive people delude themselves when they are dating less attractive people with the sense that they are more attractive than others view them. They found that this is not the case. People have a fairly objective sense of their own, and their partner’s attractiveness.

Similarly, people who are obese are less likely to have physically attractive partners than are people of normal weight. Body type is not the only factor in mate selection; obese people are seen as more attractive if they have good educations, good groom- ing, and more attractive personalities. Nonetheless, similarity in body type remains the strongest predictor in mate selection among these qualities (Carmalt, Cawley, Joyner, & Sobal, 2008).

Physical attractiveness affects both credibility and one’s ability to persuade others. Attractive people receive higher initial credibility ratings than do those who are viewed as unattractive (Widgery, 1974). Women have more success in persuading the opposite sex when they are attractive than men have in persuading the opposite sex when they are attractive, but attractive women find that this effect dissipates as they grow older (Davies, Goetz, & Shackelford, 2008). When two attractive women interact, they compete dynamically for status which suggests that they feel that they have more social status or interactional power as a result of their physical beauty (Haas & Gregory, 2005).

Space

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall (1966) introduced the concept of proxemics — the study of the human use of space and distance —in his book The Hidden Dimension. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeNGSZK01Hs&feature=related

This researcher and others, such as Werner (1987), have demonstrated the role space plays in human communication. Two concepts considered essential to the study of the use of space are territoriality and personal space.

• Territoriality refers to your need to establish and maintain certain spaces as your own. In a shared dormitory room the items on the common desk area mark the territory. For example, you might place your notebook, pens and pencils, and PDA on the right side of the desk and your roommate might place books, a cell phone, and a laptop on the left side. While the desk

is shared, you are each claiming part of the area. On a cafeteria table the placement of the plate, glass, napkin, and eating utensils marks the territory. In a neighborhood it might be fences, hedges, trees, or rocks that mark the territory. All are nonverbal indicators that signal ownership.

• Personal space is the personal “bubble” that moves around with you. It is the distance you maintain between yourself and others, the amount of space you claim as your own. Large people usually claim more space because of their size, and men often take more space than women. For example, in a lecture hall, observe who claims the armrests as part of their personal bubbles.

Hall (1966) was the first to define the four distances people regularly use while they communicate. His categories have been helpful in understanding the communicative behavior that might occur when two people are a particular distance from each other. Beginning with the closest contact and the least personal space, and moving to the greatest distance, Hall’s categories are intimate distance, personal distance, social distance, and public distance.

• Intimate distance extends from you outward to 18 inches, and it is used by people who are relationally close to you. Used more often in private than in public, this intimate distance is employed to show affection, to give comfort, and to protect. Graves and Robinson (1976) and Burgoon (1978) note that use of intimate distance usually elicits a positive response because individuals tend to stand and sit close to people to whom they are attracted.

• Personal distance ranges from 18 inches to 4 feet, and it is the distance used by most Americans for conversation and other nonintimate exchanges.

• Social distance ranges from 4 to 12 feet, and it is used most often to carry out business in the workplace, especially in formal, less personal situations. The higher the status of one person, the greater the distance.

• Public distance exceeds 12 feet and is used most often in public speaking in such settings as lecture halls; churches, mosques, and synagogues; courtrooms; and convention halls. Professors often stand at this distance while lecturing.

 

Distance, then, is a nonverbal means of communicating everything from the size of your personal bubble to your relationship with the person to whom you are speaking or listening. A great deal of research has been done on proxemics (see, e.g., Andersen, Guerrero, Buller, & Jorgensen, 1998; McMurtray, 2000; Terneus & Malone, 2004). Virtual environments allow researchers to study the human use of space in relatively unobtrusive ways (Bailenson, Blascovich, Beall, & Loomis, 2001). Sex, size, and similarity seem to be among the important determiners of personal space.

Gender affects the amount of space people are given and the space in which they choose to communicate (Ro’sing, 2003). Men tend to take more space because they are often larger than women (Argyle & Dean, 1965). Women take less space, and children take and are given the least space. Women exhibit less discomfort with small space and tend to interact at closer range (Addis, 1966; Leventhal & Matturro, 1980; Snyder & Endelman, 1979). Perhaps because women are so often given little space, they come to expect it. Also, women and children in our society seem to desire more relational closeness than do men.

Your relationship to other people is related to your use of space (Guardo, 1969). You stand closer to friends and farther from enemies. You stand farther from strang- ers, authority figures, high-status people, physically challenged people, and people from racial groups different from your own. You stand closer to people you perceive as similar or unthreatening because closeness communicates trust.

The physical setting also can alter the use of space. People tend to stand closer together in large rooms and farther apart in small rooms (Sommer, 1962). In addition, physical obstacles and furniture arrangements can affect the use of personal space.

The cultural background of the people communicating also must be considered in the evaluation of personal space. Hall (1963) was among the first to recognize the importance of cultural background when he was training American service personnel for service overseas. He wrote:

Americans overseas were confronted with a variety of difficulties because of cultural differences in the handling of space. People stood “too close” during conversations, and when the Americans backed away to a comfortable conversational distance, this was taken to mean that Americans were cold, aloof, withdrawn, and disinterested in the people of the country. USA housewives muttered about “waste-space” in houses in the Middle East. In England, Americans who were used to neighborliness were hurt when they discovered that their neighbors were no more accessible or friendly than other people, and in Latin America, exsuburbanites, accustomed to unfenced yards, found that the high walls there made them feel “shut out.” Even in Germany, where so many of my countrymen felt at home, radically different patterns in the use of space led to unexpected tensions. (p. 422)

 

Cultural background can result in great differences in the use of space and in people’s interpretation of such use. As our world continues to shrink, more people will be working in multinational corporations, regularly traveling to different countries and interacting with others from a variety of backgrounds. Sensitivity to space use in different cultures and quick, appropriate responses to those variations are imperative.

Touching

Tactile communication (Haptics) is the use of touch in communication. Because touch always involves invasion of another person’s personal space, it commands attention. Touch is a powerful means of communication (Aguinis, Simonsen, & Pierce, 1998; Fromme et al., 1989). Usually, touch is perceived as positive, pleasurable, and reinforcing. The association of touch with the warmth and caring that began in infancy carries over into adulthood. People who are comfortable with touch are more likely to be satisfied with their past and current lives. They are self-confident, assertive, socially acceptable, and active in confronting problems.

Touch is part of many important rituals. In baptism the practice can range from as little as a touch on the head during the ceremony to as much as a total immersion in water. Prayers in some churches are said with the pastor’s hand touching the person being prayed for. In some funda- mentalist Christian churches, the healer might accompany the touch with a mighty shove, right into the hands of two catchers. Physician Bernie Siegel (1990) wrote the following in his book on mind–body communication:

I’d like to see some teaching time devoted to the healing power of touch—a subject that only 12 of 169 medical schools in the English-speaking world deal with at all... despite the fact that touch is one of the most basic forms of communication between people.... We need to teach medical students how to touch people. (p. 134)

Religion and medicine are just two professions in which touch is important for ceremonial and curative purposes.

Touch varies by gender (Lee & Guerrero, 2001). The findings relating touch with gender indicate the following:

• Women value touch more than men do (Fisher, Rytting, & Heslin, 1976).

• Women are touched more than men, beginning when they are 6-month-

old girls (Clay, 1968; Goldberg & Lewis, 1969).

• Women touch female children more often than they touch male children

(Clay, 1968; Goldberg & Lewis, 1969).

• Men and their sons touch each other the least (Jourard & Rubin, 1968). • Female students are touched more often and in more places than are male

students (Jourard, 1966).

• Males touch others more often than females touch others (Henley,

1973–1974).

• Males may use touch to indicate power or dominance (Henley, 1973–1974).

 

On the last point, to observe who can touch whom among people in the workplace is interesting. Although fear of being accused of sexual harassment has eliminated a great deal of touch except for handshaking, the general nonverbal principle is that the higher- status individual gets to initiate touch, but touch is not reciprocal: The president might pat you on the back for a job well done, but in our society you don’t pat back.

Further, both co-culture and culture determine the frequency and kind of non- verbal communication. People from different countries handle nonverbal communication differently—even something as simple as touch (McDaniel & Andersen, 1998). Sidney Jourard (1968) determined the rates of touch per hour among adults rom various cultures. In a coffee shop, adults in San Juan, Puerto Rico, touched 180 times per hour; while those in Paris, France, touched about 110 times per hour; followed by those in Gainesville, Florida, who touched about 2 times per hour; and those in London, England, who touched only once per hour. North Americans are more frequent touchers than are the Japanese (Barnlund, 1975).

Touch sends such a powerful message that it has to be handled with responsibility. Touch may be welcomed by some in work or clinical settings, but it is equally likely that touch is undesirable or annoying. Certainly touch can be misunderstood in such settings (Kane, 2006; Lee & Guerrero, 2001; Strozier, Krizek, & Sale, 2003). When the right to touch is abused, it can result in a breach of trust, anxiety, and hostility. When touch is used to communicate concern, caring, and affection, it is welcome, desired, and appreciated.

Vocal Cues

Nonverbal communication includes some sounds, as long as they are not words. We call them paralinguistic features —the nonword sounds and nonword characteristics of language, such as pitch, volume, rate, and quality. The prefix para means “along- side” or “parallel to,” so paralinguistic means “alongside the words or language.”

The paralinguistic feature examined here is vocal cues—all of the oral aspects of sound except words themselves. Vocal cues include

• Pitch: the highness or lowness of your voice.

• Rate: how rapidly or slowly you speak.

• Inflection: the variety or changes in pitch.

• Volume: the loudness or softness of your voice.

• Quality: the unique resonance of your voice, such as huskiness, nasality, raspiness, or whininess.

• Nonword sounds: “mmh,” “huh,” “ahh,” and the like, as well as pauses or

the absence of sound used for effect in speaking.

• Pronunciation: whether or not you say a word correctly.

• Articulation: whether or not your mouth, tongue, and teeth coordinate to

make a word understandable to others (such as a lisp).

• Enunciation: whether or not you combine pronunciation and articulation

to produce a word with clarity and distinction so that it can be under-

stood. A person who mumbles has an enunciation problem.

• Silence: the lack of sound.

These vocal cues are important because they are linked in our minds with a speaker’s physical characteristics, emotional state, personality characteristics, gender characteristics, and even credibility. In addition, vocal cues, alone, have a persuasive effect for people when they are as young as 12 months (Vaish & Striano, 2004).

According to Kramer (1963), vocal cues frequently convey information about the speaker’s characteristics, such as age, height, appearance, and body type. For example, people often associate a high-pitched voice with someone who is female, younger, and/ or smaller. You may visualize someone who uses a loud voice as being big or someone who speaks quickly as being nervous. People who tend to speak slowly and deliberately may be perceived as being high-status individuals or as having high credibility.

A number of studies have related emotional states to specific vocal cues. Joy and hate appear to be the most accurately communicated emotions, whereas shame and love are among the most difficult to communicate accurately (Laukka, Juslin, & Bresin, 2005; Planalp, 1996). Joy and hate appear to be conveyed by fewer vocal cues, and this makes them less difficult to interpret than emotions such as shame and love, which are conveyed by complex sets of vocal cues. “Active” feelings such as joy and hate are associated with a loud voice, a high pitch, and a rapid rate. Conversely, “passive” feelings, which include affection and sadness, are communicated with a soft voice, a low pitch, and a relatively slow rate (Kramer, 1963).

Personality characteristics also have been related to vocal cues. Dominance, social adjustment, and sociability have been clearly correlated with specific vocal cues (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956). Irony, on the other hand, cannot be determined on the basis of vocal cues alone (Bryant & Tree, 2005).

Although the personality characteristics attributed to individuals displaying particular vocal cues have not been shown to accurately portray the person, as determined by standardized personality tests, our impressions affect our interactions. In other words, although you may perceive loud-voiced, high-pitched, fast-speaking individuals as dominant, they might not be measured as dominant by a personality inventory. Nonetheless, in your interactions with such people, you may become increasingly submissive because of your perception that they are dominant. In

addition, these people may begin to become more dominant because they are treated as though they have this personality characteristic.

Vocal cues can help a public speaker establish credibility with an audience and can clarify the message. Pitch and inflection can be used to make the speech sound aesthetically pleasing, to accomplish subtle changes in meaning, and to tell an audience whether you are asking a question or making a statement, being sincere or sarcastic, or being doubtful or assertive. A rapid speaking rate may indicate you are confident about speaking in public or that you are nervously attempting to conclude your speech. Variations in volume can be used to add emphasis or to create suspense. Enunciation is especially important in public speaking because of the increased size of the audience and the fewer opportunities for direct feedback. Pauses can be used in a public speech to create dramatic effect and to arouse audience interest. Vocalized pauses—“ah,” “uh-huh,” “um,” and so on—are not desirable in public speaking and may distract the audience.

Silence is a complex behavior steeped in contradictions. To be sure, silence is far better than vocalized pauses in public speaking. Too, silence may signal respect and empathy when another person is speaking or disclosing personal information. One observer notes: “Sometimes silence is best. Words are curious things, at best approximations. And every human being is a separate language.... [Sometimes] silence is best” (Hardman, 1971). On the other hand, silence may signal the dark side of communication. People in power, in dominant cultures, or in positions of authority may silence others. Those with whom they come in contact may be marginalized or embarrassed and feel that they must remain silent because of sexism, racism, taboo, incidents of violence or abuse, shame, or a hostile environment (Olson, 1997).

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS

III. Multiple Choice Tasks

IV. Choose a television personality you admire. What do you like about this person? Watch this person for several minutes with the sound turned off, and make notes of the nonverbal expressions you observe. Turn the sound back on and make notes of the tone of voice, timing, and other audible expressions.

Nonverbal Communication

Lecture

What Is Nonverbal Communication?

Nonverbal communication is the process of using wordless messages to generate meaning. Nonverbal communication includes nonword vocalizations such as inflection and nonword sounds such as “ah” and “hmm.” Communication is complex. We cannot quantify the relative contribution of nonverbal communication to verbal communication (Lapakko, 1997), but nonverbal communication often provides much more meaning than people realize. Indeed, when we are not certain about another person’s feelings or our feeling about him or her, we may rely far more on nonverbal cues and less on the words that are used (Grahe & Bernieri, 1999; Vedantam, 2006).

You know the importance of nonverbal communication in your own life. Imagine how difficult communication would be if you could not see the people with whom you are communicating, hear their voices, or sense their presence. Actually, this is what occurs when you send e-mail or instant messages or chat with others online. As electronic forms of communication have become more prevalent, people have found creative ways to communicate feeling and emotions. Emoticons are sequences of characters composed in two-dimensional written formats for the purpose of expressing emotions. The most common example of the emoticon is the “smiley” or “smiley face.” Emoticons are a form of nonverbal communication, and they illustrate the importance of this means of communication, no matter the context.